


Magic Misfire

by sbuggbot



Category: SteamWorld Quest (Video Game)
Genre: Don't copy to another site, Gen, Head Injury, Humor, Magic Backfire, Slice of Life, author can’t write long fics to save her life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-18
Updated: 2019-06-18
Packaged: 2020-05-14 07:10:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,073
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19268314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sbuggbot/pseuds/sbuggbot
Summary: Copernica tries to pull off a particularly difficult spell. It doesn't end well.





	Magic Misfire

**Author's Note:**

> I had the Urge to write and decided to just go with one of the fuzzy scenarios in my head so this happened.

“What about this part?”

Galleo sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “No, Armilly, you can’t mess with that part either or you’ll break it.”

“Can I touch any of it?” she asked, flopping back in her chair.

“Preferably  not.” He leaned over to grab something from one of the drawers. Armilly tried to use the opportunity to fiddle with the gadget Galleo was messing with while he was distracted, but Benji hopped off his shoulder to peck at her hand. The clockwork bird chirped at her indignantly.

“Ow!” Armilly yanked her hand back and stuck the pecked finger in her mouth. “Killjoy.”

Not even  remotely  shocked by this, Galleo said, “Somebody’s going to get hurt at this rate and I’m not even sure who yet.”

“Mm-hmm.”  Copernica was only half paying attention, engrossed in trying to correctly perform the evocation she’d been trying to learn. She had already made it amply clear that she didn’t want Armilly distracting her. Otherwise, the chance of her mucking up the spell would go up significantly.

Eventually, Galleo agreed to let Armilly pass him tools he needed, more so she would have something to do rather than actually needing the help. There was still a chance for her manage to hurt herself with a screwdriver, but she had enough common sense to not do so unless she was _mega-ultra bored_ (then all bets were off).

_"Scrap, no!!”_

 

**B-KANG!**

THUNK.

 

Galleo and Armilly about jumped out of their plating at the bang.  Galleo flailed and almost crashed into his workbench while Armilly's cowl slipped over her face as she leaped onto the stool, brandishing the wrench in her hand like it was a sword.

What the intimidating duo found was a cloud of soot and smoke dispersing and a dazed, soot-covered Copernica splayed out on the ground. Her hat was about a foot away from her head and her glasses were down at her chin. Armilly lowered her weapon and pushed her cowl back up. “Is she dead?” With how still Copernica was laying, it kinda looked like it.

“I hope not!” Galleo said, stepping closer. “Wait, she’s still breathing.”

Copernica chose that moment to come to. She sat back up with a small groan and held her throbbing head in one hand. (The other one was already holding up her grimoire on pure muscle memory.) “Ugh, I guess that didn't work…” she muttered.

Immediately Armilly was in her face and flooding her with questions. “Are you okay?? What’s your name? Do you remember who I am?”

She put her book down since she wasn’t in ‘spell-casting mode’ now. “Yeah, I'm Armilly and you're Copernica,” she said with a slur to her words.

A pause. Armilly scratched the back of her head through her hood. “Um…”

Copernica blinked, realizing what she had just said. “Wait, that’s not right. I meant the other way around,” she said, waving her hand as if to shoo off the thought. Copernica glanced around the room with that “I can’t see” look on her face. She hadn't fixed her glasses yet and the thought didn't occur to her.

Noting this, Armilly very, very gently lifted Copernica’s glasses back over her eyes. “Better?”

Things were still rather blurry. That wasn’t right, her vision was close to perfect with her glasses on. She raised a hand and adjusted them more, still looking confused. “Are you sure these’re mine?”

“They’re the same pair you’ve been wearing all day,” Armilly said. “Besides, you’re the only one who wears glasses, whose else would you have?”

“I don’t know! Things’re fuzzy ‘n’ my head hurts,” she sighed, wiping the lenses off on her skirt to see if that would help.

Galleo shrugged. “Well, you DID hit your head pretty hard…hard enough that it knocked you out...”

“You mean like that time I tried to jump out of the tree and onto the swing set and hit my head?” Armilly asked. “I almost made it, too…” she muttered disappointedly.

The other two winced at the memory. “...Pretty much,” Galleo said. “You might've concussed yourself, Copernica.”

“...might? More like  probanly--probably .” She held her head and gritted her teeth. This was getting old already, and it hadn't even been ten minutes yet...

“Come on, let’s move somewhere more comfortable than the floor.”

As soon as Copernica got to her feet, her head began pounding even harder and she was slammed by a wave of dizziness. Seeing double on top of that, she nearly lost her footing and fell. Luckily Armilly caught her before she could hurt herself even more. “Whoa, easy there, Squish.”

“'m okay.” She stumbled even though Armilly was holding her steady. “  Maybe  not…”

Armilly half-guided, half-carried her over to the futon and set her down on it.

“Is it normal for spells to backfire like that?” Galleo asked, checking over her head.  He found a smallish dent--not one that seriously jeopardized her brains, but it still proved that she had hit her head hard.

“Almost never that hard,” Copernica said, leaning her head back once he was done. “Usually they  just  fizzle out, not explode in your face.” She squeezed her eyes shut. “Move th’ lamp, please, it's firing lasers into m’ brain.”

“Sorry,” he said as he angled it away from her. “You, uh, want an ice pack or something?”

“Nah, I can do it myself…” Without even opening her book, Copernica raised a hand to cast and mumbled under her breath. A basic ice cantrip would work fine here.

“Wait a second--” Armilly began.

...It didn't work. Only a few wisps of ice appeared before winking out of existence. Copernica cried out in pain and clutched her head. One of the important rules of conjuring: don't cast with a head injury.

“--you aren't supposed to think too hard when you've got a concussion,” Armilly finished.

“Yah, I remember that now, ” she replied, having not moved yet and absolutely regretting her  mistake.

“I'll  just  go and get that ice pack, now…” Galleo said as he turned to leave. “Try not to hurt yourselves while I'm gone.”

“No promises!”

Galleo put a hand on the doorway and looked back at them. “Armilly, I'm serious.”

“Hi serious, I'm Copernica!” She immediately broke into giggles at her own joke. Armilly raised an eyebrow; Copernica never made corny jokes like that.

Galleo just stared at her for a moment. “We are definitely taking you to a mechanic.”

**Author's Note:**

> Come yell at me on my Tumblr: [sbuggbot.tumblr.com](sbuggbot.tumblr.com)


End file.
